There are a number of major problems encountered in providing for the shipment of cut and live flowers and plants and other articles in that the vases, pots, baskets, and receptacles holding same must be securely held in an upright position during shipment from the florist to the final destination and kept from tilting, tipping over or breaking. Furthermore, multiple shipments of different sized and configured items being made to different locations and transported in the same vehicle must be kept from engaging each other during transit to prevent damage to the plants, flowers and receptacles holding the articles. Since delivery personnel are generally part time or unskilled workers with little to no experience in handling delicate shipments and may have minimal job dedication, there is a need to have shipping containers which can be easily handled by the florist and/or delivery personnel to prevent tipping and breakage of the product. There is also a need to be able to stack product so that maximum space utilization can be obtained in the vehicle.
The prior art discloses several examples of containers used for floral transport. As an example U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,915 is directed toward a shipping container of cardboard which holds a pot in place inside the container. The floral arrangement is placed in a pot filled with a block of foamed potting medium and the flowers are held in the container by a foam block disposed above the medium block. U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,461 is directed toward a floral holder which includes a bucket and a lid which is shaped and dimensioned to removably fit on the bucket. The lid is formed with a number of spaced apart openings communicating with a plurality of sleeves secured to and extending downward from the lid projecting inside the bucket. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,932 a flower holder container having a bottom wall and a cylindrical disclosed. The inner surface of the cylindrical side wall of the container is formed with a plurality of peripherally spaced inwardly extending vertical flanges. Each flange is provided with several shoulders which are progressively offset toward the center of the container to form ledges for supporting one or more disc shaped shelves which have notches of a radial depth to seat on specific shoulders of the flanges. The disc shelves can hold flowers or a flower pot in registration with the top of the container.
The present invention solves the above problems in a manner not disclosed in the known prior art.